This invention relates to toys, in particular those which are hand thrown, or launched from a device using compressed air, springs, rubber band, or an electro-mechanical means. More particularly this invention relates to ring wing projectiles and more particularly to ring wing projectiles which are used as a sport toy device.
There are a variety of flying toys. One group is similar to the American football, except that at one end of the football, a cylindrical rod-like boom extends rearward. Attached to the rear of the boom are a series of fins, which have a large surface area. These fins are intended to act as a stabilizer. One football shape with a rearward boom and fins is known under the trademark name xe2x80x9cVortex.xe2x80x9d When thrown like a football, that is, with an initial spin or spiral motion about the flight direction and a forward or translational velocity, the large surface area fins produce high resistance to the rotational motion. In the technical field of ballistics this is known as spin decay or spin damping. Such spin damping readily reduces the gyroscopic stability, while the large, thick fins generate additional drag.
A more recent design variant of the Vortex flying football is the xe2x80x9cVortex Mega Spin.xe2x80x9d This design allows the football-like fore-body to be thrown with spin, while the tail, which is connected through a rotatable coupling to the fore-body (axially fixed, but freely rotatable with respect to the football fore-body long axis), follows along substantially without spinning (considered to be a non-spinning tail). The non-spinning tail has lower drag than the tail of the original xe2x80x9cVortexxe2x80x9d football. Nonetheless, both the fixed and non spinning tail designs of the xe2x80x9cVortexxe2x80x9d variety footballs have fairly high aerodynamic drag.
A new xe2x80x9cVortexxe2x80x9d product called the xe2x80x9cVortex Thunderjetxe2x80x9d has recently come on the market. This new product is unlike the conventional xe2x80x9cfootballxe2x80x9d shape (see FIG. 1), in that it has a ring airfoil (or ring wing) as its main aerodynamic body (see FIG. 2). However, the new toy uses a set of conventional fins (see FIG. 2) to produce basic stability and directionality. The use of a ring wing is intended to produce lift and low drag, resulting in a flatter (non-ballistic) trajectory and extended range. That is, when properly thrown the new xe2x80x9cVortex Thunderjetxe2x80x9d is intended to outperform, i.e., outrange, the conventional plastic football having conventional tail fins at the rear. The use of conventional tail fins at the rear often results in wobbling motion after the xe2x80x9cVortex Thunderjetxe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cfootballxe2x80x9d is thrown. Wobble increases the drag and thus reduces the maximum range. The prior art designs suffer from the presence of elements which produce wobble and increase drag. It is desirable to produce a design to minimize wobble and drag so that optimum range based on a launched trajectory can be achieved.
A toy device according to the invention relates to a sport toy device which is hand thrown. This toy device could also be launched from an appropriately designed launcher using compressed air, spring force, rubber band force, or an electromechanical device. The toy device includes two ring wings. The two ring wings are connected to opposite ends of a relatively short center boom (central slender member). A diameter of a forward ring-wing is larger than a diameter of a rear ring wing. Further, the smaller diameter rear ring wing can contain fins within its inner diameter so as to provide additional flight stability to the toy device. The smaller diameter rear ring wing will be referred to as the tail ring wing, while the larger diameter front ring wing will be referred to as the main ring wing.
A device according to the invention achieves a relatively long range when thrown by hand, especially as compared to the current hand thrown sport toy football, advertised as the xe2x80x9cVortex.xe2x80x9d The aerodynamic ring-wing shaping of a configuration according to the present invention develops lift from both wings along its flight path and, in combination with low drag, results in a relatively flat trajectory with extended range. The tail ring wing provides aerodynamic stability along its flight path, while having much lower drag than the conventional fins utilized on the Vortex football. A ring-wing device according to the present invention, produces less rotational resistance and excellent stability along its flight path axis, when the device is thrown or launched with initial spin, thus retaining more of the initial energy over the course of the flight path, than a similarly thrown prior art device. The two colinearly aligned wings substantially eliminate wobble and enhance flight stability which enables a hand thrown device according to the present invention to achieve longer range than a hand thrown xe2x80x9cVortexxe2x80x9d configuration football, and to fly a longer distance than similarly sized prior art sport toy projectile devices.
Additional features and superior characteristics of the present invention will he better understood through the following detailed description in conjunction with the referenced figures.